Online Fundraiser Set Up For J’can Windrush Victim Who Died Without Receiving Compensation

An online fundraiser has been set up for a 62-year-old Jamaican-born man who was a part of the Windrush generation.

A report by the British newspaper – The Guardian says Howard died on the 12th of November, a mere three weeks after he was finally granted British citizenship and 59 years after arriving in London at the tender age of three.

According to the report, he spent a large portion of the last two months of his life fighting to receive British citizenship while being in hospital. He died without receiving an apology or the promised compensation from Britain despite being thwarted by the state for many years as he attempted to prove that he had a legal right to be in the country.

The now highly publicisedWindrush scandal concerns people who were wrongly detained, denied legal rights, threatened with deportation, and, in at least 83 cases,wrongly deported from the UK by the Home Office.

Many of those affected had been born British subjects and had arrived in the UK before 1973, particularly from Caribbean countries as members of the “Windrush generation” (so named after the Empire Windrush, the ship that brought one of the first groups of West Indian migrants to the UK in 1948).

As well as those who were wrongly deported, an unknown number were wrongly detained, lost their jobs or homes, or were denied benefits or medical care to which they were entitled.A number of long-term UK residents were wrongly refused re-entry to the UK, and a larger number were threatened with immediate deportation by the UK’s Home Office.

Mr Howard’s daughter – Maresha Howard has now created a Gofundme page to assist with paying for his funeral expenses.

She states : “My father was from the Windrush generation, He fought to prove he was legal in England but sadly got seriously ill while waiting for his citizenship and compensation. My father (eventually) received his citizenship and not long after passed away. Because of the situation my father didn’t have funds to have a funeral and burial. Hubert did not want to be cremated.”